Cuddy, Lucy Hon

Lucy Hon Cuddy was Chairwoman of the First National Bank of Anchorage (now First National Bank Alaska). She helped guide Alaska’s second largest bank “through booms and busts, earthquakes and floods, and expansion across the state.”1 Cuddy was a highly respected woman who made lasting contributions to the community. In an article honoring Cuddy on her 90th birthday, the Anchorage Times said: “She is inseparable from the community. She inspires the best that dwells in the heart of each of us.”2

Lucy Evelyn (Huie Hon) Cuddy was born on August 2, 1889, in Waldren, Scott County, Arkansas, and later lived in Fort Smith. Her parents, Daniel Hon and Margaret Pamela Gaines Hon, were fourth-generation Americans of German and Scotch-English parentage. Her father was a lawyer and judge in Fort Smith.3

Arkansas to Alaska

Cuddy’s early years were spent in Waldron, Arkansas, where she attended Waldron Grade and High School. She graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1911, and earned an A.B. in education. Following graduation, she went to New York City for further studies. After returning home to Fort Smith, she taught in high schools in Arkansas for the next five years.4

Valdez

In 1916, Cuddy received a telegram from the superintendent of schools in Valdez, Alaska, offering her the position of principal and teacher at the Valdez public school. Cuddy, responding to an urge to “go out West,” accepted this offer, leaving her family home in Arkansas by herself, traveling from Fort Smith by train to Seattle, and then seven days north by steamer to Valdez. As she later wrote, “why I should leave my sheltered home for a land of ice and snow, a place where only Eskimos lived, no one understood.” Valdez had a population of five hundred, four men for every woman. She took her meals at a boarding house, the only woman among thirteen men. Lucy found the town, surrounded by mountains and waterfalls, peaceful and quiet.5

As far as matrimonial prospects went, Lucy would later remark that most of the men at the boarding house “would bore the life out of you.” In later years Lucy said that she was told that if she did not find a husband in her first year in the Valdez schools, they would make her the telephone switchboard operator to ensure that she would meet all the eligible bachelors in town. During her first year in Valdez, however, she met Warren N. Cuddy, the son of a Methodist clergyman and a graduate of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.6 He was the owner and manager of Valdez Mercantile Company, a dry goods and general merchandise store. While in the grocery business in Valdez, he continued to study law.7 In writing about Warren a few years later, Lucy said that when she met him he had resolved to be a bachelor, a collector of good books and with a collection of musical recordings, living in a well-appointed dwelling.8

One of Lucy’s favorite stories was that she liked to tell of Warren’s proposal to her. One of Valdez’s grande dames, a Mrs. Whitney, asked her whether Warren had proposed yet. When she said no, the woman suggested that she “stop her incessant talking” and give Warren a chance to say something.9 He later asked her, but the temperature was so cold that he stuttered his proposal.

Warren and Lucy traveled from Valdez to her home in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the summer of 1917 where, on August 16, they were married.10 Lucy’s father tried to persuade Warren to move from the wilds of Alaska to Arkansas by showing him around town, but Warren told Lucy “I’d hate to live here. It’s the hottest place I’ve ever been in my life.” It was a good marriage. In later years Lucy remarked that Warren “was worth the wait.” Warren “never once bored me. We liked each other.” They were married for thirty-four years.11

In describing their life in Valdez, Cuddy said: “We came to Alaska about the end of the horse and dog team era and at the beginning of the Model T era.” She explained: “The big task those days was to make that trail work as a road, and I don’t know how many tons of horsepower I put forth behind our Model T pushing it up the Richardson Highway over Thompson Pass.”12

Lucy Cuddy was a voracious reader with a razor sharp mind who also liked to write.13 Three of her pieces about living in Valdez were published in the Christian Science Monitor.14 She wrote about traveling to Alaska as a newly-wed, about the importance of fraternal organizations in Alaska, and about some of the Valdez characters, such as Spitting Nell, an antiquated Dawson dance hall girl, and Maudie and Mrs. Geldstein, Native women with white husbands or boyfriends. She kept a diary.15

From 1921 to 1928, Warren Cuddy served as clerk of court, for the U.S. District Court at Valdez, the headquarters of the Third Judicial Division. In 1929, Warren Cuddy, a Republican, was appointed as U.S. district attorney for Alaska’s Third Judicial Division. In 1933, with the election of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt as president, Joseph W. Kehoe of Ketchikan replaced Cuddy as U.S district attorney.16

Move to Anchorage

In 1933, the Cuddy family moved to Anchorage. Warren Cuddy took over the legal practice of J.S. Truitt, who became attorney general for the Territory of Alaska. In 1941, Warren Cuddy purchased a controlling interest in First National Bank of Anchorage.17 He assumed the role as bank president.

Lucy Cuddy became very active in Anchorage’s community affairs. She served as chairwoman of the Girl Scouts from 1935 to 1941. She volunteered for the American Red Cross during her adult life, beginning in World War I and continuing through World War II. She helped organize the USO Club in Anchorage. She developed the local American Red Cross’s Volunteer Nurses’ Aid Corps program to provide assistance to nurses in military hospitals during World War II.18

In 1944, her oldest son, born in 1919, David Warren Cuddy (First Lieutenant, U.S. Army) was killed at the Battle of Anzio, Italy, during World War II. Cuddy’s other son, Daniel (“Dan”), born in 1921, was a captain in the U.S. Army’s 1255th Combat Engineers Group, which was attached to General George S. Patton’s Third Army on his campaign across Europe in 1944-1945.

In 1949, Lucy Cuddy became a bank board member and was elected to the office of board secretary. In 1951, Warren Cuddy died after suffering a heart attack. Upon her husband’s death, son Dan took over management of the bank. He was named the bank’s new president and may have been the youngest chief banker in the country. Lucy became the chairwoman of the board.19

Civic Affairs

Lucy Cuddy continued to be active in civic affairs. In 1956, she was named chairwoman of Anchorage’s first community drive, the Greater Anchorage United Fund Drive (now the United Way), collecting more than $250,000 from local businesses and workers to distribute to community projects. She was a member of the Anchorage Woman’s Club. She was a life member of the Cook Inlet Historical Society.20

In 1957, Cuddy became a member of the University of Alaska Board of Regents, succeeding Robert Stock. She served until 1963, when Robert McFarland was appointed to take her place on the Board.21 The Lucy Cuddy Center food court and Memorial Dining Room at the Anchorage Community College (now the University of Alaska Anchorage) were named in her honor in 1972 in recognition of her service on the Board. The building houses the culinary arts and hospitality department and holds special events.22

On June 3, 1961, Cuddy was presented a Distinguished Alumna citation from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the third woman to be so honored.23 She was elected to the Alaska Press Club’s 49er Hall of Fame in 1971.24 The Alaskan of the Year Committee posthumously honored her with its “With Great Respect” award in 1993.25 This award honors Alaskans who “left a permanent imprint and deserved acclaim for their place in history.”26 In 2015, she was posthumously elected to the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame.

Cuddy was asked what changes had impressed her during her long life. She said: “I’ll tell you the greatest changes I’ve seen. When I grew up there was nothing for a girl to do except be a nurse or a type writer – not a secretary, but a type writer – and teach school and that’s all. Now women with training are eligible for any job at all.”27

Lucy Hon Cuddy, ninety-two, died on March 12, 1982 in Anchorage. Both Lucy and Warren Cuddy are buried in the Masonic Tract of the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.

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Lucy and Warren Cuddy at the time of their wedding in 1917 in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Courtesy of the Cuddy family.

Lucy Cuddy at the time she was the chairperson of the Greater Anchorage United Fund Drive in 1956. Although initially intimidated by the task, she carried it through successfully.

The large log cabin building of the United Service Organization (USO) at the corner of 5th Avenue and G Street, Anchorage. The USO provided a wholesome recreational place for military personnel. Lucy Cuddy volunteered here during World War II.

Organizational History, Alaskan of the Year, Inc., Guide to the Alaskan of the Year, Inc. Records, 1979-2003 (HMC-0852), Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage, https://consortiumlibrary.org/archives/FindingAids/hmc-0852.html (accessed August 19, 2015).